Low pressure area will dump rainshowers over Bicol

MANILA, Jan. 15 — The low pressure area off Mindanao has a high chance of developing into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours, the state weather bureau said on Wednesday.

PAGASA weather forecaster Connie Dadivas said that as of 4:00 a.m., the LPA was spotted at 100 km East of Borongan, Eastern Samar (11.5°N 126.4°E).

Dadivas said the LPA will continue to dump moderate to occasionally heavy rainshowers and thunderstorms over the the regions of Bicol, Eastern and Central Visayas, Caraga and Northern Mindanao. Residents in these areas are advised to take all the necessary precautionary measures against flashfloods and landslides.

Calabarzon, Mimaropa, Western Visayas and the rest of Mindanao will have cloudy skies with light to moderate rainshowers and thunderstorms.

The LPA is expected to intensify into a tropical depression by Thursday evening or Friday morning once it reaches Southern Palawan.

Dadivas said the LPA is expected to move down to southern Palawan before exiting towards the West Philippine Sea.

In case it becomes a tropical depression, it will be locally codenamed “Agaton” – the first cyclone to enter the country this year.

For its Wednesday forecast, Dadivas said the rest of Luzon including Metro Manila will be cloudy with isolated light rains due to the northeast monsoon.

Dadivas said that by Friday and Saturday, some parts of Luzon including Metro Manila will experience light to moderate rainshowers due to extended cloudiness of the weather disturbance.

In its advisory, PAGASA said that moderate to strong winds blowing from the northeast will prevail over Luzon and Visayas and coming from the northeast to northwest over Mindanao.(PNA)